...the lighting is awful, there is a bunch of crap in the way, these people won't move, I can't get the angle I really want... We have all been there. Sure, it's easy to get shots out in the wilderness or in remote areas, time and space are on your side. What to do if conditions are not ideal and there is minimal time to make adjustments? Start shooting what you can and clean up in post. This is the beauty of shooting in camera RAW.
The downsides to camera RAW: larger file size and the images need to be converted. That's it. It's too powerful not to use. Via Photoshop's camera RAW editor, you have full control over your shots as if you were developing the film yourself in a dark room and then some. Whether you realize it or not, all cameras capture initially in RAW format then will typically convert to a JPEG on the fly. This is all fine and good except that you immediately sacrifice quality and color information.
I was at Adepticon (an amazing war gaming convention in Illinois) this last spring and there was a display case set up for a model painting contest hosted by coolminiornot.com. The entrants models were all lined up in the case just begging to be photographed. I swooped in for the kill.. and so did about 20 other people. I was able to get set up for the first shot, but as people were elbowing one another and taking up space, I was just trying to get the shots as I could. There was a lot to see at the convention so rather then spending the time setting up the white balance for each shot, I just kept moving on.
I was able to get the shots I wanted, but the conditions were far from ideal. I took the images into the Photoshop camera RAW editor and was able to through a few adjustment sliders, correct for all the things I couldn't compensate for in the heat of a very crowded nerdy moment. Couple that with some simple object removal in PS and I was able to walk away with some great shots of some amazing artwork.
[mouse over the images to see the shots before adjustments]
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